Govt's criminal silence adds to farmers' woes

ISLAMABAD The Government is keeping mum as the fertiliser mafia is busy looting the innocent farmers by creating artificial shortage of urea in the market and selling it at high and unjustified rates. Certain quarters in the farmers believe that either the Government has totally failed or its members have joined hands with the culprits to mint money. They were of the view that the things were going out of control with each passing day. Urea fertiliser, which is supposed to be sold not more than Rs 810 per bag, has disappeared from the market and is not available at the rate of Rs 900 per bag. It is pertinent to mention here that the urea is a much-needed commodity for the wheat crop and the use of it will be started after 15 days. Firstly, DAP is used for the wheat crop and the traders and manufacturers made huge profits in it and by selling one bag of DAP at the rate of Rs 600 per bag. The Governments silence is a blessing for the traders, as it would help them earn more than Rs 5 billion extra money by selling urea at high rates. The Secretary Food and Agriculture is reportedly paying no attention on the complaints of farmers. President Agri Forum, Ibrahim Mughal, while talking to TheNation, said that when they contacted the Federal Secretary, he did not respond to their calls. Mughal said that 50 million bags of urea were used in rabbi season so the traders would earn huge profits and those who supported them would also get the share. He further said that nobody was concerned about the future of this country as all types of corruption was being made under the nose of the authorities concerned.